experience,” she adds. Tris had often cycled past Nick’s own barn conversion and posted a note through the door asking who had built it. With his son, Nick agreed to help with their build, and the couple praise him for managing to quickly progress from there. He managed the subcontractors and knew how to negotiate the best rates, including paying by job rather than a day rate. “A lot of stuff got done quicker because of the way he managed things,” she says.
They had a few ‘must-haves’ for the design – for Kat, big windows were important, and Tris wanted a large, open plan living/kitchen/dining area. “You would think it doesn’t make sense if the building you’re working within is confined because you want to maximise the amount of rooms, but actually I don’t think that’s how space works,” he says. “I think our home feels much bigger than it is because you’ve got this massive space, and if we extend in the future we can get those additional rooms.” They were living in Tris’ small cottage – another conversion he’d undertaken when he inherited it in his early twenties, which he says he learnt a lot from. “It really helped, because
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I could foresee pitfalls,” he explains. They mortgaged the cottage to pay for the build, and now have tenants. The barn itself wasn’t in a bad way: “It was
relatively modern, the steel and everything was in pretty good condition,” says Tris. “The concrete slab it was built on was judged sufficient so we didn’t need to do any underpinning. We were fortunate.” Although the slab is around seven to eight inches deep, each steel pillar supporting the walls sits on 2.5 metres of concrete, taking the load of the external and (single block) internal walls. “It was probably on the simpler end of barn conversions,” says Kat.
Although not strictly necessary, the couple had a structural engineer come out prior to submitting their planning application, so they could also submit his report, and they believe this helped their case. Tris believes some ‘DIY’ Class Q developments end up not being realised as they don’t meet Building Regs, making them uninsurable and unsaleable – this was something they were determined to avoid. Their architect helped them with heat loss calculations, informing Nick the level of
TRIS & KAT’S PLANNING TIPS
• “Don’t rush to submit the planning application. Make sure you’ve thought of every objection they could give and answer it” • “Provide evidence with the application like a structural engineer’s report to justify material choices etc.” • “Don’t go too crazy with what you’re trying to do (especially if it’s Class Q!) – the rules are there, and if planners can see you’re trying to work within those rules they’re much more
accommodating”
jan/feb 2023
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